Pew Research Center, A Portrait of Jewish Americans
There are Jews who believe, and Jews who disbelieve. But the majority are Jews who make believe...
And two-thirds of Jews say that a person can be Jewish even if he or she does not believe in God.
Belief in God: 34% believe with absolute certainty; 38% believe but with less certainty; 23% don't believe. Among College graduates: 25% believe with absolute certainty 43% believe with less certainty; 27% don't.
מוֹדֶה אֲנִי לְפָנֶיךָ מֶלֶךְ חַי וְקַיָּם, שֶׁהֶחֱזַרְתָּ בִּי נִשְׁמָתִי בְּחֶמְלָה. רַבָּה אֱמוּנָתֶךָ.
Modeh Ani
I offer thanks to You, living and eternal King, for You have mercifully restored my soul within me; Your faithfulness is great.
Martin Buber
1878-1965
When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them.
Akeidat Yitzchak
Isaac ben Moses Arama (c. 1420 – 1494)
(20) Concerning this "fear,"- which is identical with faith,- Rabbi Chaninah proclaims that whereas all is within the power of Heaven, imbuing someone with this faith is not within the power of Heaven, but is solely up to the believer himself. For this reason, Abraham was given credit for having believed in the promise that he would sire children. "He believed G'd, and He considered it an act of righteousness on Abraham's part." (Genesis 15,6) This faith could not have been supplied by G'd, but had to be an act of willpower on the part of Abraham himself. He was the first philosopher who found his way to this yir-ah/emunah, as is recorded of him after the akeydah, the binding of Isaac. (Genesis 22,12) "For now I know that you are G'd fearing." After all, this is the goal of all our striving, as Solomon proclaims at the end of his book Kohelet: "In conlusison, after all is said and done, fear the Lord, observe His commandments because this is the sum total of being a human being "
Srugim (television show) Season I, Episode 15 (script: Ilan Eshkoli, Yael Rubinstein, Renanit Parshani)
"But today I feel much closer to God than ever before. I left religion because they weren’t religious enough for me. I think that faith is always about being in doubt. That’s my faith. From my perspective, a person who has faith and says “I know that it’s such and such and such” doesn’t really have faith. Because all the laws and the commandments and the fact that everyone always knows what to do all the time. I felt that that is the farthest from God that it is possible to be. I said to myself …I am leaving the religious community and I am leaving faith in all the things that are clear in order to find my own God."
Mordecai Kaplan in The Many Faces of God: A Reader of Modern Jewish Theologies edited by Rifat Sonsino, pp. 22–23
Kaplan (1881-1983)
In brief, God is the Power in the cosmos that gives human life the direction that enables the human being to reflect the image of God.
The root (שורש) of the word אמת and the root of the word אמונה are one and the same-- א.מ.נ. -- as in the word "אמן".
Eliezer Berkovits, Faith after the Holocaust, p. 64. 1973
1908-1992
The hiding God is present; though man is unaware of him, He is present in his hiddenness. Therefore, God can only hide in this world. But if this world were altogether and radically profane, there would be no place in it for Him to hide. He can only hide in history. Since history is man's responsibility, one would, in fact, expect him to hide, to be silent, while man goes about his God-given task. Responsibility requires freedom, but God's convincing presence would undermine the freedom of human decision. God hides in human responsibility and human freedom.
David Ariel, The Kabbalistic Conception of God
The Kabbalists introduced a distinction between the hidden and revealed aspects of God. The hidden, infinite aspect of God is called “the Infinite” (Ein Sof, “without end”). This name was understood as the proper one for the hidden aspect of God. It suggests that God exists without implying anything about His character. According to the Kabbalists, God should be called It rather than He, although there is no neuter gender in the Hebrew language. Actually, because of the great sublimity and transcendence of God, no name at all can be applied to “the Infinite.” The name Ein Sof conveys only that God is unlike anything we know. According to these mystics, Ein Sof is not the proper object of prayers, since Ein Sof has no relationship with His creatures. The personal aspect of the hidden God is mediated by the ten sefirot, ten knowable aspects of His being. There are, therefore, two natures of God, the infinite, unknowable essence and the ten discernible aspects.